A Religion of One's Own
A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World
1 of 1 copy available
Something essential is missing from modern life. Many who've turned away from religious institutions—and others who have lived wholly without religion—hunger for more than what contemporary secular life has to offer but are reluctant to follow organized religion's strict and often inflexible path to spirituality. In A Religion of One's Own, bestselling author and former monk Thomas Moore explores the myriad possibilities of creating a personal spiritual style, either inside or outside formal religion.
Two decades ago, Moore's Care of the Soul touched a chord with millions of readers yearning to integrate spirituality into their everyday lives. In A Religion of One's Own, Moore expands on the topics he first explored shortly after leaving the monastery. He recounts the benefits of contemplative living that he learned during his twelve years as a monk but also the more original and imaginative spirituality that he later developed and embraced in his secular life. Here, he shares stories of others who are creating their own path: a former football player now on a spiritual quest with the Pueblo Indians, a friend who makes a meditative practice of floral arrangements, and a well-known classical pianist whose audiences sometimes describe having a mystical experience while listening to her performances. Moore weaves their experiences with the wisdom of philosophers, writers, and artists who have rejected materialism and infused their secular lives with transcendence.
At a time when so many feel disillusioned with or detached from organized religion yet long for a way to move beyond an exclusively materialistic, rational lifestyle, A Religion of One's Own points the way to creating an amplified inner life and a world of greater purpose, meaning, and reflection.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 1, 2014 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781490603186
- File size: 287377 KB
- Duration: 09:58:42
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 9, 2013
The author, whose bestselling Care of the Soul (1992) helped define an era of therapeutic spirituality, reprises many of the themes and preoccupations that he has written about in a dozen books: contemplation, eros, and intuition ought to play formative influences in a rich spiritual life. Moore updates his argument by considering it in the context that writings such as his helped to develop: the world of the secular, populated by those untutored in religion or critical of its institutions but interested in authentic living. For these he urges: pay attention to your dreams, desires, intuitions, and deep drives, and use religious traditions as resources in developing the titular religion of one’s own. Moore’s own spiritual formation is deeply Catholic. When he is read closely, his depth is apparent, but his heterodox syncretism makes him a natural target for less well-read enforcers of traditional religion. There’s not much new here for those who have followed him for two decades, but he stands to make some new converts to the noninstitutional ranks of spirituality. Agent: Todd Shuster, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.
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